Former San Diego State women’s basketball coach Beth Burns has filed a wrongful termination claim with the California State University system, calling it an “unlawful decision to fire one of its leaders in women’s athletics without any legitimate cause.”

Burns, 55, retired without explanation in April after 16 years at SDSU, but her claim says she was given the option of resignation, termination or retirement in a meeting earlier that day with Athletic Director Jim Sterk because she “allegedly struck a subordinate” at a February 2013 game.

UT San Diego reported in July that the incident involved Burns hitting a clipboard on the lap of assistant coach Adam Barrett and later elbowing him in the left shoulder during a home game against Colorado State. Barrett has since left the university after receiving a $250,000 settlement – more than triple his annual salary – for reasons that SDSU officials decline to disclose.

Burns and her attorney, Ed Chapin, did not comment Monday and instead referred to the 34-page claim, which was obtained from CSU through an open records request. It characterizes the incident with Barrett as “an unintentional response from a coach in the middle of a basketball game” and as “a feeble attempt to cover up the real reason” for dismissing the winningest coach in program history.

“SDSU fired her,” the claim says, “in retaliation for her unwavering demands that SDSU put women’s basketball and men’s athletics on an equal footing … Coach Burns refused to remain silent in the face of the inequities she witnessed. She regularly complained regarding the department’s disparate treatment of the women’s basketball program.”

SDSU officials would not comment on the particulars of the claim, citing the specter of pending litigation, but did defend the athletic department’s commitment to gender equity.

“The university is proud of its gender equity record and support of Title IX and Cal NOW regulations,” SDSU said in a statement.

Most university athletic departments are subject to Title IX, the 1972 law that mandates equitable treatment of male and female athletes at educational institutions that receive federal funding. Institutions can establish compliance through several ways, ranging from direct participation numbers to more arbitrary methods of demonstrating that the interests of the under-represented sex are being met.

CSU schools, however, operate under more stringent gender-equity guidelines that stem from a settlement of a 1993 lawsuit known as Cal NOW. They stipulate hard targets for CSU athletic departments in participation numbers, scholarship dollars and certain areas of funding that are higher than Title IX thresholds.

SDSU fields teams in six men’s and 13 women’s sports, having added women’s lacrosse in 2012 to remain in Cal NOW compliance. In a Gender Equity Scorecard computed by a professor at Penn State-York, SDSU ranked first in the Mountain West conference and 23rd nationally among 115 Division I schools that play top-level football in 2009, the last year the ratings were issued.

In her claim, Burns references having five different athletic directors in her most recent eight-year stint at SDSU.

“This frequent turnover,” the claim says, “resulted in significant deficits for the women’s basketball program in terms of support infrastructure for academics and housing, facilities, equipment, promotion and staffing. The athletic directors focused their time, efforts and priorities on football and men’s basketball, to the detriment of women’s athletics.”

Burns’ departure came just weeks after completing a season with a school-record 27 wins and nine months after signing a five-year contract extension that paid her $220,000 per year. Burns asks for the remaining $880,000 from that contract plus “punitive or exemplary damages” from an inability to secure another coaching job.

“In July 2013, Coach Burns received a tentative offer for an assistant coaching position at a Division I school,” the claim says. “The tentative offer was subsequently rescinded. Coach Burns is informed and believes that the offer was only rescinded after SDSU personnel communicated with the prospective employer …

“By using the pretext of a workplace violence incident, Defendants have irreparably harmed Coach Burns’ reputation and made it unlikely, if not impossible, that she will ever be able to coach women’s basketball at the Division I level again.”

The claim is directed at three SDSU personnel by name: Sterk, senior associate athletic director John David Wicker and associate vice president Richel Thaler. All three were present at the April 16 meeting with Burns that was listed on Sterk’s electronic appointment calendar as a post-season performance review.

“Sterk and Thaler told her that her termination was ‘automatic,’ ‘non-negotiable’ and approved by SDSU president Elliot Hirshman,” the claim says. “Sterk and Thaler told Coach Burns that if she did not agree to retire, she would lose pension benefits. They showed her a press release that had already been drafted announcing her retirement.”

Burns had six months to submit a claim with CSU, and the university system now has 45 days to respond. CSU essentially has three options: accept the claim (or negotiate a settlement), deny the claim outright, or ignore it. If CSU ignores it, the claim is considered denied after the 45-day period lapses and Burns can file a civil lawsuit in Superior Court.